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Now that the Months of Madness have concluded as of February 1, 2018, the time has come for feedback from you, the readers and fans of the series.

What would be great is if all you veteran readers, new fans of the series and others who stumbled upon Up From the Depths, would let me know if you thought the Months of Madness was a good thing as it introduced the series to potential new readers or a bad thing.

Here’s what I want to know:

Did the Months of Madness, the whole 99 Days at $.99 do anything for you?

Did you happen across the series because of this unusual promotion?

Is this type of promotion something that you’d like to see on an annual basis as in with the same time frame of the year or would you prefer to have this type of promo only run every couple of years so as to allow you to gather up any books you might have missed?

Starting October 23rd the 99 Days of $.99 will begin. This offer ends February 1, 2018.

If you haven’t already read the series, between those dates would be a great time to start. Don’t miss out. Each book will only be $.99 but only for 99 days. This offer ends February 1, 2018. Get your zombie apocalyptic goodness now.

That’s right, each book of the Up From the Depths series, 1-6, will be $.99 each for 99 days starting October 23rd.

Be the first on your block to collect the entire series. (up to this point)

Over the course of the last few years, the subject of providing a physical copy (trade paperback) of an author’s work along with an ebook version has come up in conversations. Some authors, both indie and signed on with publishers, provide the two formats. Others stick with strictly ebook for a number of reasons.

Some of you know that earlier on in the series, the books were offered as a trade paperback along with an ebook. I didn’t enable Amazon’s Matchbook option as I felt that if a reader purchased either format, it was the same story. Of course, some readers prefer to hold the actual book in their hands and not access it through some kind of electronic reader.

When the physical copies were available, I was going through a company, Draft2Digital, to provide those copies. At that time, D2D, offered a much easier formatting option for the cover wrap than what Amazon offered through their wildly complicated templates. D2D also offered the ability to access secondary markets like Kobo, Diesel and 24 Symbols. If you’ve never heard of those markets, don’t feel bad, neither had I.

Draft2Digital then changed some of their distribution options and no longer provided a trade paperback service stating that Amazon had streamlined that section of their publishing service.

Truthfully, I haven’t looked into Amazon’s Createspace since that announcement was made. My initial venture into CS some years back pretty much soured me on attempting to spelunk back into that dark cavern of Amazon again.

Based on Amazon’s minimal pricing for a trade paperback, and the overall process to create a paperback, I’m not all that enthused to start the process that would allow the books to once again be offered in a physical form.

The decision to offer the series as ebook only rests on several factors.

The writing it decent to good. Some readers have mentioned epic and that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

It’s a zombie apocalypse/horror series. While that appeals to a lot of readers, it’s not quite what some consider ‘mainstream’.

As the author to this series, I’m not well-known outside of a small circle of readers and fans who might have heard of my work or know me as the guy who hangs out on zombiefiend.com.

On a personal note, I feel that my writing is good to a point but I’m not at all comfortable financially ass-raping consumers by setting the price of a physical copy to the minimum that Amazon requires.

However, if there is enough interest generated by this topic, meaning enough of you ‘die-hard’ fans start demanding a trade paperback format, then the above decision will be reconsidered and the series might once again be released in two formats.

If you can’t wait for me to get off my ass and start the ball rolling towards the creation of a paperback format, feel free to check out this listing that was live as of 0900 9/25/2017:

It was brought to my attention that there was some confusion as to whether book 5, Defilade, ended the series or not. Book 5 is not the end of the series as some now know that there is a book 6 and more books coming in 2018.

Book 7 is already in progress and Book 8 has been outlined.

As you can see, there are a few more books in the pipeline.

Will those two books end the series?

Truthfully, I don’t know where or when the series will end. I don’t have a set book number the series will end at. There is an ending outlined for the series but no plans as yet to place it in a future release.

For those of you who have purchased the books, thank you. It’s through your continued interest that has let me know there is a demographic that enjoys my work.

As to the future of the series?

It will continue in the same format, the large number of locations, the large number of characters, and the separate plotlines.

For more information on the series, there is a Facebook group where information is posted about upcoming releases, promotions, and that kind of thing. There is my blog that is tied to my Amazon author page and there is a review group on the free horror/zombie site: zombiefiend.com.

Any or all of these sites will provide information about the future of this series.

Starting August 7th and moving all through the month, Books 2-5 of what some have called an ‘epic saga’ will be part of a Kindle countdown.

That means that starting at the beginning of each week, the featured book will be reduced to $0.99 and then gradually move back up to the original list price of $2.99. Book 1 is already at $0.99 and this deal will not affect that title.

This is to commemorate the release of Book 6, scheduled for later in August.

The schedule for the countdown begins with Book 2 and the week of August 7-14th.

For those few of you who have read the series up to this point, you’re aware that there are a plethora of characters involved and literally scattered all over CONUS. Those characters, and in some cases, the groups they’re part of, each have their own story to tell.

Following the events of Book 6, I know, not a lot of you have had a chance to read 6 at this point, but there have been a few of you who were exposed to some paragraphs and chapter excerpts. So, following the events that take place in #6, here’s the issue:

Option One: the books continue like they are, lots of characters in different locations dealing with whatever is happening to them.

OR
Option Two: the follow on books after 6 only tell the adventures of a single character/group. An example of this would be something like this: #7 tells the story of the events in and around Cascade. #8 tells the story of the events in and around the Safeguard group. #9 tells of something or someone else. #10, etc, etc. Then around book 12, all the stories merge again into a larger novel.

While Option Two would address the issues that some have with the massive amount of characters within this saga, it wouldn’t tell the story of the other characters/groups and their adventures that are happening concurrently.

If Option Two were to be exercised, then that means that books 7-11 could possibly be interpreted as stand alone stories that take place within the Up From the Depths Universe. That would be a very broad interpretation but some might see it in that manner.

Here’s what I need from you, the readers:

Decide what Option you’d like to read. Explain in as much detail why you feel the option you chose would be the best going forward with the series. Don’t provide a short sentence. Those entries will be tossed and deleted. I’m looking for detailed, articulate responses as to what and why the option you chose would be the best in your opinion for the series. Those responses can be sent to me via my Blog or if you’re a member of Zombiefiend, use the ‘Reply’ feature and post your response.

Within the last few weeks, there have been updates to books 1-5 due to them being sent to an editor. Those of you who have pointed out the grammatical issues should appreciate this.

In the months leading up to the release of Book #6, there will be some minor cosmetic changes to the covers of book 1-5. The most noticeable will be the rewording of each title. What that means is the former subtitle will now be shown as the main title and the main series title will now become the subtitle with the book # incorporated within that.

Here’s an example:

These are just a few of the changes happening within the series. Stay tuned for information as it becomes available.

By the way, don’t get too attached this particular cover as its only a concept cover for #6.